Cable TV guys I have questions

[I Like Waffle]

Yesterday me and my neighbor ran some cat 5 and coax cable so we can share internet and TV, about 100ft between our houses. Im having a big issue i think with the coax cable we used which is something my other neighbor gave me a 1000ft spool of.

All the cable in my house is normal cable, but the new cable we ran had an extra wire on the side (i assume for ground or something) like this:

When we installed the cable, we ran it from a splitter and just left that unhooked because it looked like regular coax cable and i didnt know wtf the extra wire was for.

Now the problem, with our cable service we get about 60 channels, before i split it i got all channels really clear, but now alot of the higher channels are fuzzy as hell //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/crap.gif.7f4dd41e3e9b23fbd170a1ee6f65cecc.gif. Over at his house he gets 2-28 or so decent, then up higher it gets fuzzy, and doesnt pick up channels over 36. Here its split into 4 TVs, plus his makes it 5. Ive checked the connection at all the splits and restripped and recrimped all the connectors so everything should be good.

One thing that i think may be causing an issue is a wire we used under the house to run to the new splitter. It was kinda shady looking, a real thin white cable wire thats 25 ft. But i dont get why my picture would still be decent in the room i split it off of, and his gets so bad at his house that he cant get certain channels?

I dont really know shit about cable TV other than quality is lost when you split it, but i didnt think itd be drastic. Ive always thought as long as the connections were good that itd be fine, but its pretty apparent to me that theres a problem with the inground cable we ran. Im sure someone has an expert opinion?

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[melnlovr911 10+ year member]

Pay for service?

 

[TeamRetribution 10+ year member]

first that is messager cable ...just used to hang it aerial ..serves no purpose

other problem i see ,is if its split 5 times ,

a.either used a 2 wayto a 4 way

b.used a 8 wayor a few other configs

problem is there is borderline signal coming in ....which makes anything beyond those splits ...crap

 

[gotparts90 10+ year member]

first that is messager cable ...just used to hang it aerial ..serves no purpose other problem i see ,is if its split 5 times ,

a.either used a 2 wayto a 4 way

b.used a 8 wayor a few other configs

problem is there is borderline signal coming in ....which makes anything beyond those splits ...crap

yep everything he said. and it being a long run after slip sucks bad. an amplifier may help but can also hurt. I have been in that situation and multiple drops/runs is a better way. You can try an amp but without a meter to set the output of it it might take a while to dial it in.

edit: I don't know how an amp will effect internet service. hopefully someone else will know.

 

[roarzorz 10+ year member]

I have to giggle at situations like this. "My attempt at stealing cable has failed and I need help." You can't just keep splitting the signal and expect to not have loss. Where's a good face-palm pic?

 

[I Like Waffle]

Yea i think i know what the problem is. I have a 4 way ran in the living room to 2 tvs, then the other 2 outputs go to 2 bedrooms, then this bedroom is split off another bedroom, and his runs of a splitter in this room. So heres the hierarchy

4 way going to 4 tvs

Splitter in one of those rooms coming to this one

Splitter in this room going to his house.

Im gonna take loose one tv off the 4 way and get rid of one of the splitters, and just hook his up to the 4 way. That should help it a bit i think. I knew there was a quality loss but i didnt think about how bad itd be. However mine and his run off the same split in this room, and his is much worse. Is that something to do with cable length?

 

[Scoobydoo 5,000+ posts]

cant wait until the cable company gets a service call in your area and notices you stealing cable and slaps you with a hefty fine.

cable/internet is less than $100/mth, if you cant afford it maybe you should get a better job

 

[wesl56 10+ year member]

i can say that those $20 RF amps from walmart work awesome... ive got one fed from a signal combiner (OTA antenna and rf out from sat box) and then going into 4 tvs, one of which is about ~150 feet away in a shop... crystal clear picture on all tvs

http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=2625064

 

[speedfreak28 10+ year member]

what a dumb shit, your openly admitting your stealing cable and asking cable guys for help. you have any idea how easy it is to find out your ip adress lol?

 

[Scoobydoo 5,000+ posts]

what a dumb shit, your openly admitting your stealing cable and asking cable guys for help. you have any idea how easy it is to find out your ip adress lol?

172.129.126.27, im gonna send a message to his local ISP now, report him and link them to this thread just cause i'm bored and wanna see what happens

and quoted for proof....

Yesterday me and my neighbor ran some cat 5 and coax cable so we can share internet and TV, about 100ft between our houses. Im having a big issue i think with the coax cable we used which is something my other neighbor gave me a 1000ft spool of.
All the cable in my house is normal cable, but the new cable we ran had an extra wire on the side (i assume for ground or something) like this:

When we installed the cable, we ran it from a splitter and just left that unhooked because it looked like regular coax cable and i didnt know wtf the extra wire was for.

Now the problem, with our cable service we get about 60 channels, before i split it i got all channels really clear, but now alot of the higher channels are fuzzy as hell //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/crap.gif.7f4dd41e3e9b23fbd170a1ee6f65cecc.gif. Over at his house he gets 2-28 or so decent, then up higher it gets fuzzy, and doesnt pick up channels over 36. Here its split into 4 TVs, plus his makes it 5. Ive checked the connection at all the splits and restripped and recrimped all the connectors so everything should be good.

One thing that i think may be causing an issue is a wire we used under the house to run to the new splitter. It was kinda shady looking, a real thin white cable wire thats 25 ft. But i dont get why my picture would still be decent in the room i split it off of, and his gets so bad at his house that he cant get certain channels?

I dont really know shit about cable TV other than quality is lost when you split it, but i didnt think itd be drastic. Ive always thought as long as the connections were good that itd be fine, but its pretty apparent to me that theres a problem with the inground cable we ran. Im sure someone has an expert opinion?

 

[speedfreak28 10+ year member]

hahahahaha

 

[alvitae 10+ year member]

Get a signal booster from radio shack. I got the kind you need electricity and plug it in. I couldn't get the in-line ones to work., Worked for me and made my cable theft a succeed!

Actually we just have A lot of tv's and computers because I own a duplex and that is what we had to do. Works great.

 

[wesl56 10+ year member]

uh oh, call the fun police!!! put down your fun!

 

[CrispedUp 10+ year member]

lawlz at this thread

 

[I Like Waffle]

were actually not in any service areas, so we have satellite internet (125 a month by itself) and cable here is almost 60, so combined thats 185, split between both of us. My grandpa works for the cable company, and just about anybody out there doesnt give a ****. Were 350ft off the road so were really not supposed to have it without paying an assload for it, but i got it like that. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif

My current ISP btw is "wal mart connect" dialup, im sure they couldnt care less about this, as theyre going down anyway. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/laugh.gif.48439b2acf2cfca21620f01e7f77d1e4.gif So please call them if youd like. I pay my 10$ a month for their service so theyre good.

To the people that mentioned the RF amplifier, i will look into that. I had been thinking about it for a while but didnt know if they were any good. Ill keep you guys posted. Next were gonna be bootlegging electricity! Im also considering running power wires from my car to his that way we can stick it to the man and not have to upgrade his alt to run another amp. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/cool.gif.3bcaf8f141236c00f8044d07150e34f7.gif